Lewis Carroll is a pen-name: Charles Lutwidge Dodgson was the author’s real name and he was lecturer in Mathematics in Christ Church, Oxford. Dodgson began the story on 4 July 1862, when he took a journey in a rowing boat on the river Thames in Oxford together with the Reverend Robinson Duckworth, with Alice Liddell (ten years of age) the daughter of the Dean of Christ Church, and with her two sisters, Lorina (thirteen years of age), and Edith (eight years of age). As is clear from the poem at the beginning of the book, the three girls asked Dodgson for a story and reluctantly at first he began to tell the first version of the story to them. There are many half-hidden references made to the five of them throughout the text of the book itself, which was published finally in 1865.

Shangani is a cross-border language spoken mainly in four Southern African countries: Zimbabwe, Swaziland, South Africa, and Mozambique. In all the countries the language is spoken, it is referred to by different names. In South Africa, it is known as Tsonga; in Mozambique, it is known as XiChangana. In Zimbabwe, it is known as Shangani although only a variety of the language referred to as Hlengwe (Bannerman 1972:36) or Tswa (Guthrie 1967) is used. Shangani speakers have become a divided and differentiated people because of the colonialism which led to the partition of Africa. Funnel (2004) notes that the partition of Africa led to the separation of several ethnic groups which lived along geographical markers that were used as country boundaries. The Limpopo River was used as a political boundary to demarcate the south-eastern border of Zimbabwe and this geographical boundary divided the Shangani people, who now live on either sides of the Limpopo River. The Gonarezhou National Park also separated the Shangani people into Mozambique and Zimbabwe. The separation of these ethnic groups gave rise to what are now commonly referred to as cross-border languages. In Southern Africa, the Shangani, Kalanga, Tonga, and Venda people are some who have been separated by artificial boundaries.

Due to this division and separation, the speakers of cross-border languages such as Shangani were forced to develop separately in terms of their education, language, worldview, culture, and politics. For instance, in the case of Shangani language varieties, each of the different countries where they are spoken has its own orthography (except for Zimbabwe where there are still efforts to come up with a standard orthography) and agenda for development (Mabaso 2006:2). This is mainly because the countries where these cross-border languages like Shangani are spoken are all sovereign states that experience and conduct social development from different perspectives and approaches. In the case of Shangani, the differences in its varieties are also due to the fact that the Shangani people are dispersed over a very large geographical area. As a result they interacted with speakers of other languages. The Shangani people on the Zimbabwean side are living in an Anglophone territory and are influenced by English and the dominant Shona language, while those in Mozambique are in Lusophone territory and are influenced by Portuguese and other neighbouring languages. The Tsonga variety in South Africa is influenced by English, Afrikaans, Venda, and other Nguni languages like Zulu, Xhosa, Pedi, and Sotho.

This translation of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland was made using the Zimbabwean Shangani variety, at a time when the language had just been introduced into the school curriculum. The government has been encouraging the speakers of the once-marginalized languages like Shangani to produce textbooks and other written materials for use in schools. The Shangani translation of Alice will be an important set book for children’s literature. Since the Shangani language in Zimbabwe does not have a fully standardized orthography, there are some inconsistencies in spelling in most of the written materials that are found in the language.

The translation is presented as a folktale; we followed the Shangani story-telling technique where the past tense is used. Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland translated to Mbalango wa Alice eTikweni ra Swihlamariso (‘The Adventures of Alice in a World of Wonders’) is an adaptation to Shangani. This can be seen in the use of Shangani names for characters in the story. We have borrowed from Shangani folklore in our adaptation of the characters in the book. Most folklore has Hare (N’waMpfundla) and Baboon (N’wa­Mfenhe) as the main characters, representing cunning and stupidity respectively. Baboon was chosen to replace the Hatter because he is a very prominent character in Shangani folklore and it is also a common animal in Shangani-speaking areas. Mouse is used to replace the Dormouse because we have no such animal in the Shangani area and the nearest equivalent is the common mouse, Sengani. The March Hare was given simply as Hare, N’waMpfundla, who is a popular character in Shangani folklore.

All the characters in the folktale are personified, indicated by the use of the capital letter for manes such as N’wa­Mpfundla, N’waMfenhe, and Kondlo. In Shangani folktales, all animal characters are personified. The prefix N’wa- is in some instances used to personify animals in Shangani. N’wa- is a prefix is used for people; it is the contracted form of n’wana which means ‘child’ but when attached to a proper name, N’wa means ‘child of’. For human beings, it only refers to the females but for animals it is for both males and females.

In conclusion, the translators of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland made an effort to adapt the story and characters to suit the Shangani culture and story-telling techniques. This is shown by the changing of different English names of characters to common Shangani ones. Also unfamiliar things were changed to familiar ones. Some statements that did not make sense were made meaningful or left out in the Shangani version so that the story would flow and not be confusing to the audience. The translators tried their best to make the translated version of Alice’s Adventure in Wonder­land a purely Shangani story without changing the main ideas in the original story.